Tuesday, 26 March 2013

The Florentine Reformers.

This is the name that Freedberg gave to the group of
painters trained and/or influenced by Bronzino, but who rejected his ideas in
favour of a more naturalistic painting. The main one was Santi di Tito, an
artist from San Sepolcro who trained with Cellini in Rome. On his return to
Florence in 1564, Santi wrestled with the implausible project of bringing
mannerism and naturalism together. Eventually he wearied of mannerism altogether
and returned to the classical high renaissance. His beautiful Holy Family
recently purchased by the Met still shows the residue of Bronzino, but its
grace and easiness suggest an artist who has returned to the principles of
classicism, notably Sarto and Raphael.

As his career progressed, Santi’s art became
more realistic and in tune with some of ideals of the Counter-Reformation.
Freedberg is right to say that his late altarpieces are not separate
stylistically from those of the seventeenth-century. What could be called Santi’s
masterpiece, the Vision of St Thomas Aquinas could be aligned comfortably
with art produced by the likes of post- Caravaggio artists such as Orazio
Gentileschi who modified Caravaggio’s realism and blended it with his refined
classicism. Also noticeable is matter-of-factness in the St Thomas
countering, but paradoxically aiding the appearance of a divine vision. This
treatment of religious art which eliminates the aesthetic qualities of maniera
in favour of more direct piety is commensurate with the demand for clarity in
art called for by the Council of Trent.

Other reformers like the Venetian
Jacopo Ligozzi who came to Florence not only strayed from the style of
mannerism but also its sources. Instead of drawing sculpture or avidly
assimilating Michelangelo’s art, Ligozzi painted watercolours of birds and
animals for clients of a scientific bent. Naturalism found its way into such
devotional images as Agony in the Garden, though its strident colours sit
oddly with his naturalistic observation of the landscape.

With most of its
major pieces taken, and time running out Florentine mannerism found itself
facing checkmate. In the next century Florentine artists like Francesco Furini
would take their cue from Caravaggio and the heirs of Leonardo, not the school
of Pontormo. His "Judith and Holofernes" betrays his debt to Caravaggio.